Bike is dr650se 99, I bought it 3 years ego with 50,000 kilometers.

Yikes! You have some severe pitting and spalling going on there. Those gears will have to be replaced. The more pits and spalls the less surface area for spreading the contact load. What type of oil are you running? Lack of film strength can cause gear surface fissures which will lead to pitting. Poor heat treating can also cause this.

I`m using Valvoline 10W40.

I use Valvoline, too.

......think I'm gonna switch to another brand.


sorry, that was an attempt at humor, I couldn't resist.



Seriously though, are you going to rebuild or try to find another engine or ?

Looks like poor heat treating/surface hardening. With all the pitting the oil film gets displaced into the pits and increases the metal to metal contact, thus heating the gears more. Luckily none of them failed. More than likely all the little bits of metal were picked up by the filter. Looks like its time for all new gears and a complete set of bearings.

Hi to all. I have just joined after recently getting a 2007 DR650 here in Australia.
A mate has a 96 model and he has replaced 2nd gear about 8 years ago and no problems. His bike now has 96000km and still going strong.
My bike is a 07 model (apparently it is the special blue model with 167hp) with 22000km. 5th gear was extremely noisy, so I couldn't leave the unknown and I opened the box up. Unbelievable amount of wear on both 5th gears.
It looks like the hardening has gone and now it was wearing the teeth down to nothing...well with a few more km. 3rd gear had only a couple of teeth with a couple of minor marks, so I left it alone as I wasn't counting on problems there and I hadn't ordered the 3rd gear parts. At least I know what I am in for later if it gets worse, but I am happy to re-assemble it now.
I am putting new rings on while I am there and I have done a little porting on the head also, just to smooth a couple of lips and round a couple of square corners. No metal in the oil but I found all the hardening ground into metal paste and stuck to the magnetic surface of the rotor.

A couple of other mods on my bike when I got it: 36 litre tank, 2004 YZ450F upside down forks and revalved rear shock, scotts top tripple clamp and fatbars, 2 fullsize headlights. Previous owner set the bike up for desert crossings, about 1500km each way on any of his trips.

I've got a low mileage 07 that should benefit from the factory upgraded 3rd gear. Back when the dinosaurs roamed, most of us used 1000 mile oil change intervals, with our air cooled motorcycles. If you're running a conventional dino oil in the air/oil cooled unit construction DR650, consider strongly 1000 mile/1600 kilometer changes and the oil filter is inexpensive, so change it too.

With mine while I strongly considered Shell's full synthetic 5/40 Rotella, I've settled on Royal Purple's motorcycle specific 10/40 full synthetic Max Cycle motor oil. It had helped with my DL1000's clunky 1st to 2nd upshift, compared to several other premium oils. The DL1000 is the one currently running synthetic Rotella with 3000 kilometer intervals, since a Touratech shift lever mounted directly on the shift shaft, substancially improved the above mentioned shifting woes.

However, even with an expensive full synthetic mc specific motor oil in the DR, I'll extend the oil change intervals to no more than 3000 kilometers/1800 miles with filter changes each time. If your accumulated mileage is mostly in town or offroading change it more often, compared to extended highway/commuting distances etc.... If you wring your bikes neck when riding, carrying wheelies more than occasionally etc., adopt shorter oil change intervals on whatever oil type you're using. Don't expect high mileage transmissions, if you're running inexpensive oils and oil change intervals along the lines of ST1300 and FJR1300 schedules.

It's a sophisticated air/oil cooled single, but it's still bears more resemblance to the bikes of our distant past, than modern touring rigs etc. Give them the added attention of premium oils and short oil change intervals and you'll probably be pleasantly suprised with their long term durability.

996DL

mwhobie said:

Congrats!

Sounds like Al's bike, saw some pics of it doing a Simpson crossing. I remember that he had some trick lowered and relocated foot pegs on there as well.

Yes.
The footpegs had been cut and welded so that now the peg mount is about 30mm (1/2 inch) behind the rear mounting bolt and about 30mm (1/2 inch)higher than the bolts. Perhaps he made new brackets.
My mate with the 96 DR650 saw the footpeg mods and that has inspired him to fix that aspect of his bike after 8 years.
Can you let me know where you saw the photos. I would be interested to see them.

Yeah, Al was the first to make his own replacement brackets. You got your inches and milimeters mixed up though, 30mm is about 1 3/16". :busted:

I saw the pictures in a ride report on Advrier, I'll try to dig up the link.

Cheers,
Lukas

Found it, here is the link:
http://www.advrider....highlight=al510

Thanks for that link.
WOW...what a trip. Now my bike has set a very high standard for MY offroad advertures. I hope that I don't disapoint it:smirk:

I just reassembled my bike yesterday after replacing both 5th gears, hone and rings and a small port job. Runs like a swiss watch...well like a VERY big one. 5th gear is silent and the engine has a wonderful BARK to it. Crisp and ready to go.

DR650 3rd gear blowups.

NordieBoy (NZ) 2001 60,000km
Transalper (NZ) 2001 55,000km
Rosscoact (AU) 2004 13,000km
Mardy (US) 1997 53,000km
Haddon (NZ) 1999 40,000km
RubberCow80 (AU) 2001 25,000km
Philth (AU) 3 bikes <20,000km
BikeRooter (AU) 2006 10,200km
Madsdad (US) 2005 16,000km
briangv99 (AU) 2006 21,000km
bluebye (US) 2004 37,000km
Coyote X (US) 2007 33,800km
DRjoe (AU) 1997 100,000km
DRJens (SE) 2001 23,000km
DRjoe (AU) 2003 15,000km
Helicopter (NZ) 2002 ???km
Klay (US) 2001 29,000km

I have a 2006 with 15,000 hard miles that has recently developed a pronounced whine when in 3rd gear. I have used synthetic oil since break in. I'm not going to worry about it though. If it does break and grenade the engine, I'll fix it by lifting off the gas cap and rolling a TE630 in under it.

If it does go there won't be any warning.

The whine is a feature not a problem :D

I've got about 60,000km on my '97 engine now - 3rd has always whined.
I did 55,000km on the '01 before it blew - no whine ever.

Thats good to hear. Guess the new bike will have to wait for a while. Thats OK, the DR is a very fun and capable rig that gets better with every mod I do to it. Well worth keeping around for many more thousands of miles.

This is enough to influence my decision not to buy a DR,I cant afford a new bike every season,Id like to know Ill have a reliable bike,for a while,I dont neglect on maintenance,but DAM! Im not going to make a stupid decision either,If these bikes are blowing gear boxes,I cant take this big a chance,Im pissed off,but Im glad at the same time,I passed over a few Good deals on KLRs,by reading this forum,now I guess Ill pass on this DR I already had planned to get as well,I guess,in my case,It sucks to know to much,but I wanted to try another brand.Im really down about all this,anyone got a horse for sale??

I completely share your concern and the idea worries me too, but that's like what, 17 that we know of? Out of how many DR's owned over the multiple forums? They've been making the same bike more or less for almost 15 years. The odds seem rather low to me. Yes it can and has happened but I wouldn't pass judgement on the DR over it.

(I'm not in denial, I'm just being realistic!)

XR_RON said:

As has been said before, you need to see the bigger picture here. 20 or so cases in the many hundreds of DR owners that this thread has been exposed to equates to < .1% failure rate. Surely no reason not to give it a chance. Virtually all DR650 owners that have experienced this still ride DRs.

XR_RON said:

How many km's would you do in a year?
The average is 30-40,000km before boom.

As has been said, 99% never have a problem.